@article {9999,
title = {Social Networks and the Success of Market Intermediaries: Evidence from the US Residential Real Estate Industry},
journal = {The Information Society},
volume = {31},
year = {2015},
month = {9/2015},
pages = {361-378},
abstract = {We examine the roles of market intermediaries in brokering connections among otherwise disconnected social networks. Market intermediaries are usually thought of as simply bringing together buyers and sellers with whom they have weak ties. However, intermediaries may also connect principals with other professionals who can provide assistance with the transaction. Because they are involved in repeated transactions, market intermediaries generally have strong ties with such professionals. We address the question of which set of relations{\textemdash}weak ties to buyers and sellers or strong ties to other professionals{\textemdash}are more important to the success of market intermediaries, using data from the US residential real estate industry{\textemdash}a setting in which transactions are complex and market intermediaries are common. From a national survey of 525 realtors, we find that strong tie relations are more important than weak ties as predictor of the market intermediary{\textquoteright}s income, counter to the general wisdom about real estate in particular and market intermediaries more generally. This finding suggests that market intermediaries may become more successful by developing strong relations with other related professionals. The strong-tie arrangements among professional market intermediaries may behave like {\textquoteleft}quasi-firms{\textquoteright} that help buyers and sellers navigate complex market transactions. },
doi = {10.1080/01972243.2015.1041665},
attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/The\%20Role\%20of\%20Market\%20Intermediaries\%20final\%20to\%20distribute.pdf},
author = {Kevin Crowston and Sawyer, Steve and Rolf Wigand}
}
@article {9998,
title = {Digital assemblages: Evidence and theorizing from the computerization of the U.S. residential real estate industry},
journal = {New Technology, Work and Employment},
volume = {29},
year = {2014},
month = {3/2014},
pages = {40-56},
abstract = {The contribution of this paper is to theorize on the roles information and communication technologies (ICT) play in reshaping work arrangements and specifically to advance the concept of a digital assemblage as a lens for this analysis. We pursue an alternative conceptualization of the role of ICT: computerization. The fundamental premise of computerization is that actors are embedded in transactions and that ICT are taken up and used to support this embedding rather than for purposes of strict economic rationality. This work draws on data from a study of the U.S. residential real estate industry, which serves here as a {\textquotedblleft}living laboratory{\textquotedblright} for studying information-intensive industries.
},
doi = {10.1111/ntwe.12020},
attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/Real_estate_assemblages_ntwe_2014_to_share_sawyer_crowston_wigand.pdf},
author = {Sawyer, Steve and Kevin Crowston and Rolf Wigand}
}
@article {Sawyer:2005,
title = {Redefining access: Uses and roles of information and communication technologies in the US residential real estate industry from 1995 to 2005},
journal = {Journal of Information Technology},
volume = {20},
number = {4},
year = {2005},
pages = {213{\textendash}233},
abstract = {We discuss three industry-level changes in the US residential real estate industry due, in part, to the take up and uses of information and communication technologies (ICT): (1) changes in the processes of transacting residential real estate, (2) changing roles for information, and (3) changing nature of intermediation, with the real estate transaction as more complex than the seller{\textendash}agent{\textendash}buyer simplification would suggest. We speculate that these changes are currently indeterminate due to ongoing confusion among the impacts of first and second-level effects, the roles of ICT in redefining access to data, and the importance of localized, social structures of real estate markets. To develop these findings, we take an institutional perspective and draw on multiple data collection methods. This provides us a means to highlight the value of an institutional perspective for studying industrial-level change.},
keywords = {Computer-Mediated Communication, Real Estate},
doi = {10.1057/palgrave.jit.2000049},
attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/jit05.pdf},
author = {Sawyer, Steve and Rolf Wigand and Kevin Crowston}
}
@article {Sawyer:2003,
title = {The social embeddedness of transactions: Evidence from the residential real estate industry},
journal = {The Information Society},
volume = {19},
number = {2},
year = {2003},
pages = {135{\textendash}154},
abstract = {Information and communications technologies (ICT) are becoming pervasive in the residential real-estate industry and their usage is affecting the work lives of real-estate agents. Drawing on data from a regional study of the residential real-estate industry in the United States, we focus on the disintermediation or, more accurately, the reintermediation of real-estate agents in the sales process. Using data collected from interviews, direct observation, and archival records, we examine how real-estate agents are (1) taking advantage of new ICT in their work, and (2) protecting themselves from others wishing to displace their position in the real-estate value chain. Our analysis of this activity draws on two contrasting theoretical perspectives to illuminate the roles of residential real-estate agents: transaction cost and social capital. The results of this study provide insights into the ways in which ICT are used to build and draw on the social relationships that underpin the actual transactions, to help guide the process of buying/selling a house, and to invoke expertise as needed. },
keywords = {Computer-Mediated Communication, Coordination, Real Estate},
doi = {10.1080/01972240309460},
attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/tis2001final.pdf},
author = {Sawyer, Steve and Kevin Crowston and Rolf Wigand and Allbritton, Marcel}
}
@proceedings {Wigand:2001,
title = {Information and communication technologies in the real estate industry: Results of a pilot survey [Research in progress]},
year = {2001},
pages = {339-343},
address = {Bled, Slovenia},
abstract = {We have been studying the growing use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the residential real estate industry and the effects of this use on how realtors work. Earlier stages of our project involved qualitative research to develop a better understanding of the industry, the work of realtors and their use of ICT. In this paper we report on the results of qualitative research and a pilot of a survey intended to gather large-scale data on realtors and ICT use.},
keywords = {Real Estate},
attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/ecis2001.pdf},
author = {Rolf Wigand and Kevin Crowston and Sawyer, Steve and Allbritton, Marcel},
editor = {Smithson, Steve and Gricar, Joze and Podlogar, Mateja and Avgerinou, Sophia}
}
@article {Crowston:2001,
title = {Investigating the interplay between structure and information and communications technology in the real estate industry},
journal = {Information, Technology \& People},
volume = {14},
number = {2},
year = {2001},
pages = {163{\textendash}183},
abstract = {Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are reshaping many industries, often by reshaping how information is shared. However, while the effects and uses of ICT are often associated with organizations (and industries), their use occurs at the individual level. To explore the relationships between individual uses of ICT and changes to organization and industry structures, we examined the residential real estate industry. As agents, buyers and sellers increase their uses of ICT, they also change how they approach their daily work. The increasing uses of ICT are simultaneously altering industry structures by subverting some of the realtors{\textquoteright} control over information while also reinforcing the existing contract-based structures. This structurational perspective and our findings help to explain why information intermediaries persist when technology-based perspectives would suggest their disappearance.},
keywords = {Real Estate},
doi = {10.1108/09593840110695749},
attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/itp2001.pdf},
author = {Kevin Crowston and Sawyer, Steve and Rolf Wigand}
}
@proceedings {Sawyer:2000,
title = {How do information and communication technologies reshape work? Evidence from the residential real estate industry},
year = {2000},
address = {Brisbane, Australia, December 10{\textendash}13},
abstract = {We are exploring how information and communication technology (ICT) use affects the work lives of real estate agents, the process of selling/buying houses, and the overall structure of the residential real estate industry. Earlier stages of our work involved intensive field research on how real estate agents use ICT. In this paper, we report on the design and analysis of a pilot survey of 868 agents intended to investigate their ICT use more generally. Analysis of the 153 responses to this survey sheds light on how ICT use supports information control, enables process support, and helps agents to extend and maintain their social capital.},
keywords = {Real Estate},
attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/00RIP21.pdf},
author = {Sawyer, Steve and Kevin Crowston and Allbritton, Marcel and Rolf Wigand}
}
@proceedings {Sawyer:1999a,
title = {ICT in the real estate industry: Agents and social capital},
year = {1999},
address = {Milwaukee, WI},
abstract = {For the past year, we have been involved in a study of the ways in which information and communications technologies (ICT) are becoming pervasive in the residential real estate industry and their effects on the work lives of real estate agents. Our initial results suggest that analyzing an agent{\textquoteright}s social capital{\textendash}the set of social resources embedded in relationships{\textendash}provides insight into how real estate agents work and how that work is affected by ICT. Social capital has three components: structural, relational, and cognitive. ICT use affects all three components. },
keywords = {Real Estate},
attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/ICT\%20in\%20the\%20real\%20estate\%20industry\%20Agents\%20and\%20social\%20capital.pdf},
author = {Sawyer, Steve and Kevin Crowston and Rolf Wigand}
}
@article {Crowston:1999b,
title = {Real estate war in cyberspace: An emerging electronic market?},
journal = {International Journal of Electronic Markets},
volume = {9},
number = {1{\textendash}2},
year = {1999},
pages = {1{\textendash}8},
abstract = {In this paper, we explore how electronic commerce, the World-Wide Web in particular, is affecting the real estate industry. Real estate is a promising setting for studying electronic commerce because it is an information-intensive and informationdriven industry; transaction-based, with high value and asset-specificity; with many market-intermediaries (agents and brokers who connect buyers and sellers rather than buying or selling themselves); and experiencing on-going information technology (IT) related changes. We analyze a real estate transaction to suggest where IT might change the process of buying or selling a house and discuss several current ventures in this area. This analysis suggests that Web-based commerce is eroding the long-enjoyed information monopoly of real-estate agents and electronic commerce applications have the potential to drastically change current practices in the real-estate industry, including the disintermediation of agents.},
keywords = {Real Estate},
attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/empaper.pdf},
author = {Kevin Crowston and Rolf Wigand}
}
@proceedings {Crowston:1998,
title = {Use of the web for electronic commerce in real estate},
year = {1998},
address = {Baltimore, MD},
abstract = {In this paper, we will explore the ways in which electronic commerce, the World-wide Web (WWW) in particular, is affecting the real estate industry. Real estate is a promising setting for studying electronic commerce because it is an information-intensive and information-driven industry; transaction-based, with high value and asset-specificity; market-intermediary (agents and brokers connect buyers and sellers rather than buying or selling themselves); and experiencing on-going information technology (IT) related changes. In this paper, we apply a coordination theory framework to suggest where IT might change the process of buying or selling a house. Electronic commerce applications have the potential to drastically change current practices in the real-estate industry, including the disintermediation of agents. Web-based commerce is eroding the long-enjoyed information monopoly of real-estate agents. We illustrate this potential by reviewing a number of existing real estate websites that demonstrate the possible impact of electronic commerce on this industry.},
keywords = {Real Estate},
attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/amcis98.pdf},
author = {Kevin Crowston and Rolf Wigand}
}